


In which I manifest some redemption arcs

by Udbsken



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28146645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Udbsken/pseuds/Udbsken
Summary: After Emerald defects, Salem sends Mercury and Tyrian to clean up the loose ends. Mercury makes a snap decision and now wakes up in an unfamiliar place, forced to deal with the consequences
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	In which I manifest some redemption arcs

Mercury woke up in pain, which wasn’t that unusual of an experience for him. These days it was mostly minor battle or training injuries, or phantom pains in the legs he no longer had, both of which felt stupid enough to keep to himself. Today the pain reminded him more of something else - he was aware of every one of his muscles as each one simultaneously ached and felt dead beneath his skin. He tried not to wince as he angled himself into a sitting position. Definitely poison, from the feel of it. He was immune to some poisons (thanks Dad), but judging by the way his fingertips were numbing, this wasn’t one of them. Annoying, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t expected it. The actual unexpected thing was that he was awake to have to worry about the kind of poison it was at all.

He brought a hand to the epicentre of the ache, his fingers brushing bandages around his midriff. They felt like they’d been applied by a practiced hand, but not one that cared much for detail. The question of who’d put them there probably lingered in his mind for longer than it should have.

But first things first - now that he was definitively sure he wasn’t dying, he needed to establish where he was. The room was dark, curtains drawn over the windows so only a sliver of moonlight stretched over the room, but Mercury’s eyes had already adjusted. It looked like a bedroom, with a few notable differences - it was larger than he would have thought normal, and barren of personal artifacts, the only decoration an empty bookshelf and desk and a nondescript abstract painting framed in one corner. Its sterility reminded him of a hotel room. Probably Atlesian, Mercury guessed, running one finger over the soft cotton sheets on the bed he was in.

As he was pondering the implications of his still being in Atlas, he realised that the soft, barely perceptible rhythm he’d dismissed as wind when he woke up sounded much more similar to breathing. _That was far too late_ , he scolded himself. The lightheadedness from the poison definitely wasn’t helping him orient himself.

He tracked the sound to the side of the bed, a current of relief washing over him at the sight of a familiar sleeping form leaning, curled in on herself, against the bedframe. Em. Mercury fought down a smile, guilt twisting in his stomach that he’d had the instinct to smile in the first place. Then again, he supposed there wasn’t much point in trying to deny he cared about her now, after that display. He contemplated waking her up briefly, but decided against it. Emerald had never been the deepest sleeper, but she’d always gotten kind of giddy when Cinder had let her sleep in. Mercury would content himself with being relieved to see her alive and, as a quick scan showed him, free of injury.

For now, he needed to explore where he was. How little he knew about the place had been itching at him since he’d woken up. A good assassin had an intimate knowledge of their location at all times. _A good assassin doesn’t take a hit of poison to protect the person they’ve been ordered to kill._ He shook that thought off. Yes, by all accounts that had been a monumentally stupid decision. But seeing Emerald sleeping and not poisoned and _safe_ inexplicably made him glad he’d made it anyway. If that made him a mediocre assassin, he was going to have to cope with that.

He threw off the sheet and got off the bed, his prosthetics finding the give of carpet beneath them. Standing after being poisoned was always a pain in the neck, and this time was no different - the lightheadedness worsened tenfold, his limbs feeling more numb and boneless, like every movement was a fight through viscous liquid. If it were someone else, they might have stumbled at the sudden difficulty of remaining upright, but there was no way Mercury was giving Tyrian that satisfaction. He rolled his shoulders back with a sigh, waiting a few seconds for his vision to stop swimming, before heading towards the door.

As soon as he cracked it open, he was greeted with a gun in his face - that was his mistake as well, moving far too confidently for an unknown location. That was too many errors in one day for Mercury’s liking - he was going to have to hit something soon. Maybe the girl outside the door could give him a hand with that.

“Hi Blondie,” he said with a smirk, conscious of Emerald behind him.

He did know her name - Yang Xiao Long, if his memory hadn’t abandoned him with the steadily building headache behind his temples. Calling her Blondie seemed to get on her nerves though, so Mercury persisted with it. True to form, she glared at him, although her eyes remained steadily purple.

“Would you like to do this outside?” he offered, trying to sound more languid than he felt.

She glanced behind him for a second, giving him an opening to kick the gauntlet out of the way which he didn’t take. Evidently she knew about Emerald then. Mercury was half hoping she would ignore her, but obviously that had been an unrealistic dream. Yang looked back at him, and then nodded and tugged him outside by the wrist, closing the door behind him.

They were now in a hallway, blue painted doors lining the white corridor, some with keypads flanking them. That was definitely Atlesian design. If he wanted more hints than that though, it looked like he’d need to go through Yang, who was still pointing her weapon at him and looked like she was a hair trigger away from using it.

“Are you trying to pick a fight?” she said, “Because I think I could win a rematch in your condition.”

It stung Mercury to admit it, but she was probably right. He could maybe get in a few solid injuries, but with the poison still burning through his system, he doubted he could incapacitate her. Not that that was necessarily the best play to make anyway. He needed information, and it was more than likely Yang had some. She had been guarding the door, which would be what Mercury would do in her position. Actually, in her position he probably would have killed the prisoner while they were still unconscious, which made him wonder why he was still breathing. Goddamnit, it looked like he’d have to ask her, for the basics at least.

“I’m not interested in fighting you.” Mercury said truthfully, “Though, could you tell me what it is we’re doing here?”

The use of ‘we’ was carefully vague, phrased so it could refer to himself, Yang, Emerald, or the others who would inevitably be lurking around here somewhere if she was. How she responded would tell him who she was focused on. Yang lowered her weapon, but kept her guard up.

“You can thank Emerald for that. She begged us to help, said she didn’t know where else to go,” part of her looked smug at the idea of them being reliant on her team’s mercy, which Mercury narrowly avoided breaking her leg for.

Well, that plan involved a truly impressive number of strategic mistakes on Emerald’s part - firstly that she’d bother to save his life at all, considering she didn’t even know what side he was on. Come to think of it, he guessed he also didn’t know what side he was on. He sorted that query into the ‘think about it later’ pile. There was also the fact that the people she’d come to for aid were realistically more likely to kill them than actually help. The fact that either of them were alive now was a miracle Mercury would have to tease her about later.

To Yang he tentatively pushed his luck further: “And what are you doing here?”

“None of your business,” she said, showing rare evidence of having at least two braincells to rub together.

Still, he could take a guess. The fact that they were in Atlas and the building wasn’t a smouldering pile of rubble likely meant Salem’s invasion was still going on. This building was big, big enough to have what Mercury guessed was an undisturbed guest room, and if Team Irritatingly Naive Children was here in the middle of a massive Grimm attack Mercury would have guessed it also had good security. Considering they weren’t on Ironwood’s good side and he remembered one of their teammates was that Schnee heiress, his bet was on this being her place. He doubted they were the type to give up in the face of obviously overwhelming odds, so most likely they were here to strategise. Or Yang was here alone, but that didn’t seem probable. So:

“Did the others leave you out of their planning session?” Mercury grinned.

The weapon went back up. He knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to antagonise his guard in these circumstances, but he was in desperate need of some stress relief.

“I volunteered.” Yang growled, “Mostly so if anything went sideways, I could be the first one to blow your head off.”

It was really very easy to look unperturbed by a threat made by a nineteen year old when you’d just finished getting on the bad side of one of the most powerful and immortal people alive. Mercury’s smile didn’t waver.

“Anyway,” she said in a ‘this conversation is over’ tone he’d heard her use on her sister a couple of times back at Beacon, “this is all of the house you’re going to get to see, so I suggest you head back inside before I start with the non-vital organs.”

Mercury shrugged. He had more questions, but he’d already given Yang enough of his weaknesses already. She’d push that upper hand if she knew what she was doing. Then again, he considered, if she knew what she was doing the city wouldn’t be overrun with Grimm right now. Really they were not the best choice for adversaries to Salem.

As he put a hand to the doorknob in strategic retreat, Yang spoke again, making him pause.

“Did you really shield Emerald from Tyrian?” she asked, her voice softer than it had been a second ago.

So Emerald had told them the whole story too, had she? Another stellar tactical decision. Mercury shrugged again, purposefully.

“It wasn’t like it was a protracted fight or anything. I saw her in danger and made a split second decision, that’s it.”

 _A stupid decision._ He’d already said he was turning down her offer when she told him she was defecting; it wasn’t like she should have even expected him to hold back, let alone protect her. _Who are you trying to kid_ , said the ache in his chest that reminded him with every throb how relieved he was the poison was in his blood and not Emerald’s.

“It wasn’t an insult. I would have done the same thing if my sister was about to be killed,” Yang said with a crooked smile.

Mercury blinked at her for a second and then glared.

“Don’t pretend like you know me,” he snarled.

The smug look returned. Mercury pulled the door open before he had to spend any more time looking at it, slamming the door behind him as venomously as he could for someone who couldn’t leave a guest bedroom under threat of force. Typically of his scattered brain today, he’d forgotten Emerald was asleep.

She had thrown her arms around him before he’d even had time to look up, pulling him closer to her like she always did in a hug, as if she was encouraging him to lean on her. Mercury had a general policy of breaking the wrists of people who tried to touch him, but Emerald had worn him into granting her the singular exception after a few years. She was constantly physically affectionate with anyone who would let her (stupidly including Cinder, which had earnt her some bruises), so Mercury appreciated that she held back with him, although when she got really excited like this she couldn’t help but tackle the nearest person. He didn’t always mind it, although he’d never tell her that. It was sort of sweet to be able to comfort her by putting an arm around her shoulders, or to have her lean against him when she was sleepy. He reciprocated the hug, mostly just to feel her warmth and the movement of muscles in her wiry shoulders under his own hands - a reassurance to himself. _She’s safe. She’s alive_.

Em was the one who broke apart first, punching Mercury in the forearm (and suddenly reminding him he was wearing a t-shirt, which meant goddamn Yang had seen the scars on his arms, as if he hadn’t already giftwrapped enough weaknesses for her today).

“Gods, don’t ever scare me like that again,” she said as angry as Mercury had ever heard her.

“I’ll be sure to send you a calendar invite next time I plan on getting myself poisoned,” he said with a dry grin.

He had missed her, which he felt stupid about considering she’d barely been gone a few days. Maybe it was just the knowledge that his assumption that he’d never see his partner again was wrong. Actually, he’d probably burnt his bridges with Salem pretty thoroughly by turning on Tyrian, so provided she wanted anything to do with him they might have no choice but to be in the same boat. Emerald gave him a hard look and dragged him over to the bed.

“Seriously, that was stupid, even by your standards. Does it hurt?”

Mercury considered lying, but Emerald probably wouldn’t appreciate it, and he did owe her one after she saved his life.

“A bit over average by poison standards, I’d say.”

“I hate that you know that.”

“I’m worldly.”

Emerald sighed. “Well I guess as long as you’re not dying it’s fine.”

“About that,” Mercury said, “why did you go to these guys, of all people, for help?”

Emerald looked away in slight embarrassment. “I panicked. They were the only people I could think of who I might even have a chance of convincing.”

That did make a certain kind of sense when he thought about it. Emerald probably didn’t know anyone in Atlas, and Salem’s forces would probably have killed her and left him for dead. Even Cinder - as bad a situation as they were in, Mercury was glad beyond words she didn’t go back to Cinder.

“You’re an idiot,” he told her.

“Yeah I know. Still, it worked didn’t it?”

If you consider anything about being trapped in an Atlas mansion surrounded by your enemies and on the hit list of the person currently razing the whole kingdom to the ground to be working. Emerald leant towards him so their shoulders touched.

“I’m happy you’re not dead, Merc,” she said.

He looked down at her, taking in the way her eyes lit up in a smile that didn’t need her to move her mouth, the slight mess to her hair where she’d been sleeping on it, her thin, dexterous fingers resting on the bed between them instead of lying bloodless on the Atlas streets. God, he was so happy she wasn’t dead.

“And welcome to the defection club,” she said with a grin.

Mercury groaned and buried his head in his hands. “Please don’t remind me.”

She laughed, and for a second he forgot about Salem storming the city and their no doubt imminent deaths and let himself enjoy the feeling of having Em back by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t swear so unfortunately my Mercury POV is never going to be fully accurate - just pepper in swear words where appropriate
> 
> Also if you were wondering why Em uses plural “gods” while Merc uses singular, it’s my hc that because Remnant has many different presumably both mono- and poly-theistic religions, people alternate which they use depending on their beliefs and upbringing. Although they both know about the brothers, Mercury is an atheist and loves heresy


End file.
